Traditionally, the name
Tenochtitlan
was thought to come from Nahuatltetl[ˈtetɬ]
("rock") and nōchtli[ˈnoːtʃtɬi]
("prickly pear") and is often thought to mean "Among the prickly pears [growing among] rocks". However, one attestation in the late 16th-century manuscript known as "the Bancroft dialogues" suggests the second vowel was short, so that the true etymology remains uncertain.[35]

The suffix
-co
is the Nahuatl locative, making the word a place name. Beyond that, the etymology is uncertain. It has been suggested that it is derived from
Mextli
or Mēxihtli, a secret name for the god of war and patron of the Mexica,
Huitzilopochtli, in which case
Mēxihco
means "place where Huitzilopochtli lives".[36]
Another hypothesis suggests that Mēxihco
derives from a portmanteau
of the Nahuatl words for "moon" (Mētztli) and navel (xīctli).[37]
This meaning ("at the navel of the moon") might refer to Tenochtitlan's position in the middle of Lake Texcoco. The system of interconnected lakes, of which Texcoco formed the center, had the form of a rabbit, which the Mesoamericans
pareidolically
associated with the moon rabbit. Still another hypothesis suggests that the word is derived from
Mēctli, the name of the goddess of
maguey.[37]

The name of the city-state was transliterated to Spanish as
México
with the phonetic value of the letter x
in Medieval Spanish, which represented the
voiceless postalveolar fricative[ʃ]. This sound, as well as the
voiced postalveolar fricative[ʒ], represented by a
j, evolved into a
voiceless velar fricative[x]
during the 16th century. This led to the use of the variant Méjico
in many publications in Spanish, most notably in Spain, whereas in Mexico and most other Spanish–speaking countries, México
was the preferred spelling. In recent years, the Real Academia Española, which regulates the Spanish language, determined that both variants are acceptable in Spanish but that the normative recommended
spelling
is México.[38]
The majority of publications in all Spanish-speaking countries now adhere to the new norm, even though the alternative variant is still occasionally used.[citation needed]
In English, the 'x' in Mexico represents neither the original nor the current sound, but the consonant cluster
[ks].

The official name of the country has changed as the
form of government
has changed. The declaration of independence signed on November 6, 1813 by the deputies of the Congress of Anáhuac
called the territory América Septentrional
(Northern America). On two occasions (1821–1823 and 1863–1867), the country was known as Imperio Mexicano
(Mexican Empire). All three federal constitutions (1824, 1857 and 1917, the current constitution) used the name
Estados Unidos Mexicanos[39]—or the variant
Estados-Unidos Mexicanos,[40]
all of which have been translated as "United Mexican States". The phrase República Mexicana, "Mexican Republic", was used in the 1836 Constitutional Laws.[41]

The earliest
human
artifacts in Mexico are chips of stone tools
found near campfire remains in the Valley of Mexico and radiocarbon-dated to circa 10,000 years ago.[43]
Mexico is the site of the domestication of maize, tomato, and beans, which produced an agricultural surplus. This enabled the transition from
paleo-Indian
hunter-gatherers to sedentary agricultural villages beginning around 5000 BC.[44]

In the subsequent formative eras, maize cultivation and cultural traits such as a mythological and religious complex, and a
vigesimal
numeric system, were diffused from the Mexican cultures to the rest of the Mesoamerican
culture area.[45]
In this period, villages became more dense in terms of population, becoming socially stratified with an artisan class, and developing into chiefdoms. The most powerful rulers had religious and political power, organizing construction of large ceremonial centers developed.[46]

The earliest complex civilization in Mexico was the
Olmec
culture, which flourished on the Gulf Coast from around 1500 BC. Olmec cultural traits diffused through Mexico into other formative-era cultures in Chiapas, Oaxaca and the Valley of Mexico. The formative period saw the spread of distinct religious and symbolic traditions, as well as artistic and architectural complexes.[47]
The formative-era of Mesoamerica is considered one of the six independent cradles of civilization.

In Central Mexico, the height of the classic period saw the ascendancy of
Teotihuacán, which formed a military and commercial empire whose political influence stretched south into the Maya area as well as north. Teotihuacan, with a population of more than 150,000 people, had some of the largest
pyramidal structures
in the pre-Columbian Americas.[49]
After the collapse of Teotihuacán around 600 AD, competition ensued between several important political centers in central Mexico such as Xochicalco
and Cholula. At this time, during the Epi-Classic,
Nahua peoples
began moving south into Mesoamerica from the North, and became politically and culturally dominant in central Mexico, as they displaced speakers of Oto-Manguean languages.

Post-classic period (ca. 1000–1519 AD)

1945 Mural by Diego Rivera depicting the view from the
Tlatelolco
markets into Mexico-Tenochtitlan, the largest city in the Americas at the time.

Alexander von Humboldt
originated the modern usage of "Aztec" as a collective term applied to all the people linked by trade, custom, religion, and language to the
Mexica state
and Ēxcān Tlahtōlōyān, the Triple Alliance. In 1843, with the publication of the work of William H. Prescott, it was adopted by most of the world, including 19th-century Mexican scholars who considered it a way to distinguish present-day Mexicans from pre-conquest Mexicans. This usage has been the subject of debate since the late 20th century.[50]

The Aztec empire was an informal or hegemonic empire because it did not exert supreme authority over the conquered lands; it was satisfied with the payment of tributes from them. It was a discontinuous empire because not all dominated territories were connected; for example, the southern peripheral zones of
Xoconochco
were not in direct contact with the center. The hegemonic nature of the Aztec empire was demonstrated by their restoration of local rulers to their former position after their city-state was conquered. The Aztec did not interfere in local affairs, as long as the tributes were paid.[51]

The Aztec of Central Mexico built a tributary empire covering most of central Mexico.[52]The Aztec were noted for practicing human sacrifice
on a large scale. Along with this practice, they avoided killing enemies on the battlefield. Their warring casualty rate was far lower than that of their Spanish counterparts, whose principal objective was immediate slaughter during battle.[53]
This distinct Mesoamerican cultural tradition of human sacrifice ended with the Spanish conquest in the 16th century. Over the next centuries Mexican indigenous cultures were gradually subjected to Spanish colonial rule.[54]

The Spanish first learned of Mexico during the
Juan de Grijalva
expedition of 1518. The natives kept "repeating: Colua, Colua, and
Mexico, Mexico, but we [explorers] did not know what
Colua
or Mexico
meant", until encountering Montezuma's governor at the mouth of the Rio de las Banderas.[55]:33–36
The Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire
began in February 1519 when Hernán Cortés
arrived at the port in Veracruz
with ca. 500 conquistadores. After taking control of that city, he moved on to the Aztec capital. In his search for gold and other riches, Cortés decided to invade and conquer the Aztec empire.[56]

When the Spaniards arrived, the ruler of the Aztec empire was
Moctezuma II, who was later killed. His successor and brother
Cuitláhuac
took control of the Aztec empire, but was among the first to fall from the first smallpoxepidemic
in the area a short time later.[57]
Unintentionally introduced by Spanish conquerors, among whom smallpox
was endemic, the infectious disease ravaged Mesoamerica in the 1520s. It killed more than 3 million natives as they had no immunity.[58]
Other sources, however, mentioned that the death toll of the Aztecs might have reached 15 million (out of a population of less than 30 million) although such a high number conflicts with the 350,000 Aztecs who ruled an empire of 5 million or 10 million.[59]
Severely weakened, the Aztec empire was easily defeated by Cortés and his forces on his second return with the help of state of Tlaxcala
whose population estimate was 300,000.[60]
The native population declined 80–90% by 1600 to 1–2.5 million. Any population estimate of pre-Columbian Mexico is bound to be a guess but 8–12 million is often suggested for the area encompassed by the modern nation.

Smallpox was a devastating disease: it generally killed Aztecs but not Spaniards, who as Europeans had already been exposed to it in their cities for centuries and therefore had developed
acquired immunity.[61]
The deaths caused by smallpox are believed to have triggered a rapid growth of Christianity in Mexico and the Americas. At first, the Aztecs believed the epidemic was a punishment from an angry god, but they later accepted their fate and no longer resisted the Spanish rule.[62]
Many of the surviving Aztecs believed that smallpox could be credited to the superiority of the Christian god, which resulted in their acceptance of Catholicism and yielding to the Spanish rule throughout Mexico.[63]

Viceroyalty of New Spain (1521–1821)

The capture of Tenochtitlan and refounding of Mexico City in 1521 was the beginning of a 300-year-long colonial era during which Mexico was known as
Nueva España
(New Spain). The Kingdom of New Spain was created from the remnants of the Aztec hegemonic empire. Subsequent enlargements, such as the conquest of the Tarascan state, resulted in the creation of the Viceroyalty of New Spain in 1535. The Viceroyalty at its greatest extent included the territories of modern Mexico, Central America as far south as Costa Rica, and the western United States. The Viceregal capital Mexico City also administrated the
Spanish West Indies
(the Caribbean), the
Spanish East Indies
(the Philippines), and
Spanish Florida.

The indigenous population stabilized around one to one and a half million individuals in the 17th century from the most commonly accepted five to ten million
pre-contact population. The population decline was primarily the result of communicable diseases, particularly
smallpox, introduced during the
Columbian Exchange. During the three hundred years of the colonial era, Mexico received between 400,000 and 500,000 Europeans, between 200,000[65]
and 250,000 Africans[66]
and between 40,000 and 120,000 Asians.[67]
The 18th century saw a great increase in the percentage of mestizos.[68]

Colonial
law with Spanish roots
was introduced and attached to native customs creating a hierarchy between local jurisdiction (the Cabildos) and the Spanish Crown. Upper administrative offices were closed to native-born people, even those of pure Spanish blood (criollos). Administration was based on the
racial separation
of the population among "Republics" of Spaniards, Amerindians and castas, autonomous and directly dependent on the king himself.

As a result of its trade links with Asia, the rest of the Americas, Africa and Europe and the
profound effect of New World silver, central Mexico was one of the first regions to be incorporated into a
globalized
economy. Being at the crossroads of trade, people and cultures, Mexico City has been called the "first world city".[70]
The Nao de China
(Manila Galleons) operated for two and a half centuries and connected New Spain with Asia. Goods were taken from Veracruz to Atlantic ports in the Americas and Spain. Veracruz was also the main port of entry in mainland New Spain for European goods, immigrants, and African slaves. The Camino Real de Tierra Adentro
connected Mexico City with the interior of New Spain.

Spanish forces, sometimes accompanied by native allies, led expeditions to conquer territory or quell rebellions through the colonial era. Notable Amerindian revolts in sporadically populated northern New Spain include the
Chichimeca War
(1576–1606), Tepehuán Revolt
(1616–1620) and the Pueblo Revolt
(1680). To protect Mexico from the attacks of English, French and Dutch pirates
and protect the Crown's monopoly of revenue, only two ports were open to foreign trade—Veracruz on the Atlantic and Acapulco on the Pacific. Among the best-known pirate attacks are the 1663 Sack of Campeche
and 1683 Attack on Veracruz.

Mexico's short recovery after the War of Independence was soon cut short again by the civil wars and institutional instability of the 1850s, which lasted until the government of
Porfirio Díaz
reestablished conditions that paved the way for economic growth. The conflicts that arose from the mid-1850s had a profound effect because they were widespread and made themselves perceptible in the vast rural areas of the countries, involved clashes between castes, different ethnic groups and haciendas, and entailed a deepening of the political and ideological divisions between republicans and monarchists.[72]

During this period, the frontier borderlands to the north became quite isolated from the government in Mexico City, and its monopolistic economic policies caused suffering. With limited trade, the people had difficulty meeting tax payments and resented the central government's actions in collecting customs. Resentment built up from California to Texas. Both the mission system and the
presidios
had collapsed after the Spanish withdrew from the colony, causing great disruption especially in Alta California and New Mexico. The people in the borderlands had to raise local militias to protect themselves from hostile Native Americans. These areas developed in different directions from the center of the country.[74]

Wanting to stabilize and develop the frontier, Mexico encouraged immigration into present-day Texas, as they were unable to persuade people from central Mexico to move into those areas. They allowed for religious freedom for the new settlers, who were primarily Protestant English speakers from the United States. Within several years, the Anglos far outnumbered the
Tejano
in the area. Itinerant traders traveled through the area, working by free market principles. The Tejano grew more separate from the government and due to its neglect, many supported the idea of independence and joined movements to that end, collaborating with the English-speaking Americans.[74]

The
Caste War of Yucatán, the
Maya
uprising that began in 1847, was one of the most successful modern Native American revolts.[76][77]
Maya rebels, or Cruzob, maintained relatively independent enclaves in the peninsula until the 1930s.[78]

Porfiriato (1876–1911)

Porfirio Díaz, a republican general during the French intervention, was elected the 29th president in 1876. The 1880 election was won by
Manuel González Flores. Díaz was reelected in 1884 and ruled until 1911. The period, known as the Porfiriato, was characterized by economic stability and growth, significant foreign investment and influence, investments in the arts and sciences and an expansion of the
railroad network
and telecommunications. The period was concurrent with the Gilded Age
in the US and Belle Époque
in France and was also marked by economic inequality and political repression.

Mexican Revolution (1910–1920)

President Díaz announced in 1908 that he would retire in 1911, resulting in the development of new coalitions. But then he ran for reelection anyway and in a show of U.S. support, Díaz and
William Howard Taft
planned a summit in El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, for October 16, 1909, an historic first meeting between a Mexican and a U.S. president and also the first time an American president would cross the border into Mexico.[80]
Both sides agreed that the disputed Chamizal strip
connecting El Paso to Ciudad Juárez would be considered neutral territory with no flags present during the summit, but the meeting focused attention on this territory and resulted in assassination threats and other serious security concerns.[80]

On the day of the summit,
Frederick Russell Burnham, the celebrated scout, and Private C.R. Moore, a
Texas Ranger, discovered a man holding a concealed
palm pistol
standing at the El Paso Chamber of Commerce building along the procession route, and they disarmed the assassin within only a few feet of Díaz and Taft.[80]
Both presidents were unharmed and the summit was held.[80]
Díaz was re-elected in 1910, but alleged electoral fraud forced him into exile in France and sparked the 1910 Mexican Revolution, initially led by
Francisco I. Madero.

Assassinated in 1920, Carranza was succeeded by another revolutionary hero,
Álvaro Obregón, who in turn was succeeded by
Plutarco Elías Calles. Obregón was reelected in 1928 but assassinated before he could assume power. Although this period is usually referred to as the Mexican Revolution, it might also be termed a civil war since president Díaz (1909) narrowly escaped assassination and presidents Francisco I. Madero (1913), Venustiano Carranza (1920), Álvaro Obregón (1928), and former revolutionary leaders Emiliano Zapata (1919) and Pancho Villa (1923) all were assassinated during this period.

Early 20th century stability and one-party rule (1920–2000)

In 1929, Calles founded the National Revolutionary Party (PNR), later renamed the
Institutional Revolutionary Party
(PRI), and started a period known as the Maximato, which ended with the election of
Lázaro Cárdenas, who implemented many economic and social reforms. This included the
Mexican oil expropriation
in March 1938, which nationalized the U.S.
and Anglo-Dutch
oil company known as the Mexican Eagle Petroleum Company. This movement would result in the creation of the state-owned Mexican oil company known as
Pemex. This sparked a diplomatic crisis with the countries whose citizens had lost businesses by Cárdenas' radical measure, but since then the company has played an important role in the economic development of Mexico.

Between 1940 and 1980, Mexico remained a poor country but experienced substantial economic growth that some historians call the "Mexican miracle".[83]
Although the economy continued to flourish for some, social inequality
remained a factor of discontent. Moreover, the PRI rule became increasingly authoritarian and at times oppressive in what is now referred to as 'Mexico's dirty war'[84]
(see the 1968 Tlatelolco massacre,[85]
which claimed the life of around 300 protesters based on conservative estimates and as many as 800 protesters).[86]

In 1994, Salinas was succeeded by
Ernesto Zedillo, followed by the
Mexican peso crisis
and a $50 billion IMF
bailout. Major macroeconomic reforms were started by President Zedillo, and the economy rapidly recovered and growth peaked at almost 7% by the end of 1999.[90]

After twelve years, in 2012, the PRI won the Presidency again with the election of
Enrique Peña Nieto, the governor of the
State of Mexico
from 2005–2011. However, he won with only a plurality of about 38%, and did not have a legislative majority.[92]

In his third presidential run, former mayor of Mexico City Andrés Manuel López Obrador won the 2018 presidential election with over 50% of the vote. His political coalition, led by left-wing party
MORENA
which was founded after the 2012 elections by Andres himself, includes parties and politicians from all over the political spectrum and has also obtained the majority in both: upper and lower congress chambers. AMLO's (one his many nicknames) swept succes is attributed to the country's other strong political alternatives exhausting their chances as well as the politician adopting a moderate discourse with focus in conciliation.[93]

On its north, Mexico shares a 3,141 km (1,952 mi)
border with the United States. The meandering
Río Bravo del Norte
(known as the Rio Grande in the United States) defines the border from Ciudad Juárez
east to the Gulf of Mexico. A series of natural and artificial markers delineate the United States-Mexican border west from Ciudad Juárez to the Pacific Ocean. Donald Trump
made the construction of a border wall (on the U.S. side) an element of his 2016 presidential campaign. On its south, Mexico shares an 871 km (541 mi) border with Guatemala and a 251 km (156 mi) border with Belize.

As such, the majority of the Mexican central and northern territories are located at high altitudes, and the highest elevations are found at the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt:
Pico de Orizaba
(5,700 m or 18,701 ft), Popocatépetl
(5,462 m or 17,920 ft) and Iztaccihuatl
(5,286 m or 17,343 ft) and the Nevado de Toluca
(4,577 m or 15,016 ft). Three major urban agglomerations are located in the valleys between these four elevations: Toluca,
Greater Mexico City
and Puebla.[96]

Climate

The
Tropic of Cancer
effectively divides the country into temperate and tropical zones. Land north of the twenty-fourth parallel experiences cooler temperatures during the winter months. South of the twenty-fourth parallel, temperatures are fairly constant year round and vary solely as a function of elevation. This gives Mexico one of the world's most diverse weather systems.

Areas south of the 24th parallel with elevations up to 1,000 m (3,281 ft) (the southern parts of both coastal plains as well as the
Yucatán Peninsula), have a yearly median temperature between 24 to 28 °C (75.2 to 82.4 °F). Temperatures here remain high throughout the year, with only a 5 °C (9 °F) difference between winter and summer median temperatures. Both Mexican coasts, except for the south coast of the Bay of Campeche and northern Baja, are also vulnerable to serious
hurricanes
during the summer and fall. Although low-lying areas north of the 24th parallel are hot and humid during the summer, they generally have lower yearly temperature averages (from 20 to 24 °C or 68.0 to 75.2 °F) because of more moderate conditions during the winter.

Many large cities in Mexico are located in the Valley of Mexico or in adjacent valleys with altitudes generally above 2,000 m (6,562 ft). This gives them a year-round temperate climate with yearly temperature averages (from 16 to 18 °C or 60.8 to 64.4 °F) and cool nighttime temperatures throughout the year.

Many parts of Mexico, particularly the north, have a dry climate with sporadic rainfall while parts of the tropical lowlands in the south average more than 2,000 mm (78.7 in) of annual precipitation. For example, many cities in the north like
Monterrey,
Hermosillo, and
Mexicali
experience temperatures of 40 °C (104 °F) or more in summer. In the Sonoran Desert
temperatures reach 50 °C (122 °F) or more.

In 2012, Mexico passed a comprehensive climate change bill, a first in the developing world, that has set a goal for the country to generate 35% of its energy from clean energy sources by 2024, and to cut emissions by 50% by 2050, from the level found in 2000.[97][98]
During the 2016 North American Leaders' Summit, the target of 50% of electricity generated from renewable sources by 2025 was announced.[99]

Biodiversity

Mexico ranks fourth[100]
in the world in biodiversity and is one of the 17 megadiverse countries. With over 200,000 different species, Mexico is home of 10–12% of the world's biodiversity.[101]
Mexico ranks first in biodiversity in reptiles
with 707 known species, second in mammals with 438 species, fourth in amphibians
with 290 species, and fourth in flora, with 26,000 different species.[102]
Mexico is also considered the second country in the world in ecosystems
and fourth in overall species.[103]
About 2,500 species are protected by Mexican legislations.[103]

Government and politics

Government

The United Mexican States are a federation whose government is
representative, democratic and
republican
based on a presidential system according to the 1917 Constitution. The constitution establishes three levels of government: the federal Union, the state governments and the municipal governments. According to the constitution, all constituent states of the federation must have a republican form of government composed of three branches: the executive, represented by a governor and an appointed cabinet, the legislative branch constituted by a unicameral congress[citation needed][original research?]
and the judiciary, which will include a state Supreme Court of Justice. They also have their own civil and judicial codes.

The federal Congress, as well as the state legislatures, are elected by a system of
parallel voting
that includes plurality and proportional representation.[108]
The Chamber of Deputies has 500 deputies. Of these, 300 are elected by plurality vote
in single-member districts
(the federal electoral districts) and 200 are elected by proportional representation with
closed party lists[109]
for which the country is divided into five electoral constituencies.[110]
The Senate is made up of 128 senators. Of these, 64 senators (two for each state and two for Mexico City) are elected by plurality vote in pairs; 32 senators are the first minority or first-runner up (one for each state and one for Mexico City), and 32 are elected by proportional representation from national closed party lists.[109]

The highest organ of the
judicial branch
of government is the Supreme Court of Justice, the national
supreme court, which has eleven judges appointed by the President and approved by the Senate. The Supreme Court of Justice interprets laws and judges cases of federal competency. Other institutions of the judiciary are the
Federal Electoral Tribunal, collegiate, unitary and district tribunals, and the Council of the Federal Judiciary.[112]

Law enforcement

Public security is enacted at the three levels of government, each of which has different prerogatives and responsibilities. Local and state police departments are primarily in charge of law enforcement, whereas the
Mexican Federal Police
are in charge of specialized duties. All levels report to the Secretaría de Seguridad Pública (Secretary of Public Security). The General Attorney's Office (Procuraduría General de la República, PGR) is the executive power's agency in charge of investigating and prosecuting crimes at the federal level, mainly those related to drug and arms trafficking,[116]
espionage, and bank robberies.[117]
The PGR operates the Federal Ministerial Police
(Policia Federal Ministerial, PMF) an investigative and preventive agency.[118]

While the government generally respects the human rights of its citizens, serious abuses of power have been reported in security operations in the southern part of the country and in indigenous communities and poor urban neighborhoods.[119]
The National Human Rights Commission has had little impact in reversing this trend, engaging mostly in documentation but failing to use its powers to issue public condemnations to the officials who ignore its recommendations.[120]
By law, all defendants have the rights that assure them fair trials and humane treatment; however, the system is overburdened and overwhelmed with several problems.[119]

Despite the efforts of the authorities to fight crime and fraud, most Mexicans have low confidence in the police or the judicial system, and therefore, few crimes are actually reported by the citizens.[119]
The Global Integrity Index
which measures the existence and effectiveness of national anti-corruption mechanisms rated Mexico 31st behind Kenya, Thailand, and Russia.[121]
In 2008, president Calderón proposed a major reform of the judicial system, which was approved by the Congress of the Union, which included oral trials, the presumption of innocence for defendants, the authority of local police to investigate crime—until then a prerogative of special police units—and several other changes intended to speed up trials.[122]

President
Felipe Calderón
made abating organized crime one of the top priorities of his administration by deploying military personnel to cities where drug cartels operate. This move was criticized by the opposition parties and the National Human Rights Commission for escalating the violence, but its effects have been positively evaluated by the US State Department's Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs
as having obtained "unprecedented results" with "many important successes".[127]

Since President Felipe Calderón launched a crackdown against cartels in 2006, more than 28,000 alleged criminals have been killed.[128][129]
Of the total drug-related violence 4% are innocent people,[130]
mostly by-passers and people trapped in between shootings; 90% accounts for criminals and 6% for military personnel and police officers.[130]
In October 2007, President Calderón and US president George W. Bush
announced the Mérida Initiative, a plan of law enforcement cooperation between the two countries.[131]

Military

The Mexican Armed Forces have two branches: the
Mexican Army
(which includes the Mexican Air Force), and the
Mexican Navy. The Mexican Armed Forces maintain significant infrastructure, including facilities for design, research, and testing of weapons, vehicles, aircraft, naval vessels, defense systems and electronics;[156][157]
military industry manufacturing centers for building such systems, and advanced naval dockyards that build heavy military vessels and advanced missile technologies.[158]

In recent years, Mexico has improved its training techniques, military command and information structures and has taken steps to becoming more self-reliant in supplying its military by designing as well as manufacturing its own arms,[159]
missiles,[157]
aircraft,[160]
vehicles, heavy weaponry, electronics,[156]
defense systems,[156]
armor, heavy military industrial equipment and heavy naval vessels.[161]
Since the 1990s, when the military escalated its role in the war on drugs, increasing importance has been placed on acquiring airborne surveillance platforms, aircraft,
helicopters, digital war-fighting technologies,[156]
urban warfare equipment and rapid troop transport.[162]

Mexico has the capabilities to manufacture nuclear weapons, but abandoned this possibility with the
Treaty of Tlatelolco
in 1968 and pledged to only use its nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.[163]
In 1970, Mexico's national institute for nuclear research successfully refined weapons grade uranium[164][not in citation given]
which is used in the manufacture of nuclear weapons but in April 2010, Mexico agreed to turn over its weapons grade uranium to the United States.[165][166]

Historically, Mexico has remained neutral in international conflicts,[167]with the exception of World War II. However, in recent years some political parties have proposed an amendment of the
Constitution
to allow the Mexican Army, Air Force or Navy to collaborate with the United Nations in peacekeeping missions, or to provide military help to countries that officially ask for it.[168]

Administrative divisions

The United Mexican States are a federation of 31 free and sovereign states, which form a union that exercises a degree of jurisdiction over Mexico City and other
territories.

Each state has its own constitution,
congress, and a judiciary, and its citizens elect by
direct voting
a governor
for a six-year term, and representatives to their respective unicameral state congresses for three-year terms.[169]

Mexico City is a special political division that belongs to the federation as a whole and not to a particular state. Formerly known as the Federal District, its autonomy was previously limited relative to that of the states.[170]
It dropped this designation in 2016 and is in the process of achieving greater political autonomy by becoming a federal entity with its own constitution
and congress.[171]

Economy

A proportional representation of Mexico's exports. The country has the
most complex economy
in Latin America.

Mexico has the
15th largest
nominal GDP and the 11th largest
by purchasing power parity. GDP annual average growth for the period of 1995–2002 was 5.1%.[88]
Mexico's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in purchasing power parity
(PPP) was estimated at US $2.2602 trillion in 2015, and $1.3673 trillion in nominal exchange rates.[173]
Mexico's GDP in PPP per capita was US $18,714.05. The World Bank reported in 2009 that the country's Gross National Income
in market exchange rates was the second highest in Latin America, after Brazil
at US $1,830.392 billion,[174]
which lead to the highest income per capita
in the region at $15,311.[175][176]
Mexico is now firmly established as an upper middle-income country. After the slowdown of 2001 the country has recovered and has grown 4.2, 3.0 and 4.8 percent in 2004, 2005 and 2006,[177]
even though it is considered to be well below Mexico's potential growth.[178]
Furthermore, after the 2008–2009 recession, the economy grew an average of 3.32 percent per year from 2010 to 2014.

From the late 1990s onwards, the majority of the population has been part of the growing middle class.[179]
But according to Mexico's National Council for the Evaluation of Social Development Policy
(CONEVAL) from 2006 to 2010 the portion of the population who lives in poverty rose from 18%-19%[180]
to 46% (52 million people).[181]
However, rather than Mexico's economy crashing, international economists attribute the huge increase in the percentage of population living below the country's poverty line to the CONEVAL changing the standards used to define it, pointing out that the percentage of people living in poverty according Mexico's national poverty line is around 40 times higher than the one reported by the World Bank's
international poverty line, with the difference between the two being the biggest in the world. It is pondered then if it wouldn't be better for countries in the situation of Mexico to adopt more internationalized standards to measure poverty so the numbers obtained could be used to make accurate international comparisons.[182]
According to the OECD's own poverty line (defined as the percentage of a country's population who earns half or less of the national median income) 21.5% of Mexico's population lives in situation of poverty.[183]
This is also reflected by the fact that infant mortality in Mexico is three times higher than the average among OECD nations, and the literacy levels are in the median range of OECD nations. Nevertheless, according to Goldman Sachs, by 2050 Mexico will have the 5th largest economy in the world.[184]

Among the
OECD
countries, Mexico has the second highest degree of economic disparity between the extremely poor and extremely rich, after Chile – although it has been falling over the last decade, being only one of few countries in which this is the case.[185]
The bottom ten percent in the income hierarchy disposes of 1.36% of the country's resources, whereas the upper ten percent dispose of almost 36%. OECD also notes that Mexico's budgeted expenses for poverty alleviation and social development is only about a third of the OECD average – both in absolute and relative numbers.[183]

According to a 2008 UN report the average income in a typical urbanized area of Mexico was $26,654, while the average income in rural areas just miles away was only $8,403.[186]
Daily minimum wages are set annually being set at $80.04 Mexican pesos
($4.5 USD) in 2017.[187]

The electronics industry of Mexico has grown enormously within the last decade. Mexico has the sixth largest electronics industry in the world after
China,
United States,
Japan,
South Korea, and
Taiwan. Mexico is the second largest exporter of electronics to the United States where it exported $71.4 billion worth of electronics in 2011.[188]
The Mexican electronics industry is dominated by the manufacture and OEM design of televisions, displays, computers, mobile phones, circuit boards, semiconductors, electronic appliances, communications equipment and LCD modules. The Mexican electronics industry grew 20% between 2010 and 2011, up from its constant growth rate of 17% between 2003 and 2009.[188]
Currently electronics represent 30% of Mexico's exports.[188]

Mexico produces the most automobiles of any North American nation.[189]
The industry produces technologically complex components and engages in some research and development activities.[190]
The "Big Three" (General Motors,
Ford
and Chrysler) have been operating in Mexico since the 1930s, while
Volkswagen
and Nissan
built their plants in the 1960s.[191]
In Puebla
alone, 70 industrial part-makers cluster around Volkswagen.[190]
In the 2010s expansion of the sector was surging. In 2014 alone, more than $10 billion in investment was committed. In September 2016 Kia motors opened a $1 billion factory in Nuevo León,[192]
with Audi also opening an assembling plant in Puebla the same year.[193]BMW,
Mercedes-Benz
and Nissan
currently have plants in constructuion.[194]

The domestic car industry is represented by
DINA S.A., which has built buses and trucks since 1962,[195]
and the new Mastretta
company that builds the high-performance Mastretta MXT
sports car.[196]
In 2006, trade with the United States and Canada accounted for almost 50% of Mexico's exports and 45% of its imports.[13]
During the first three quarters of 2010, the United States had a $46.0 billion trade deficit
with Mexico.[197]
In August 2010 Mexico surpassed France to become the 9th largest holder of US debt.[198]
The commercial and financial dependence on the US is a cause for concern.[199]

The remittances from Mexican citizens working in the United States account for 0.2% of Mexico's GDP[200]
which was equal to US$20 billion per year in 2004 and is the tenth largest source of foreign income after oil, industrial exports, manufactured goods, electronics, heavy industry, automobiles, construction, food, banking and financial services.[201]
According to Mexico's central bank, remittances in 2008 amounted to $25bn.[202]

Communications

The telecommunications industry is mostly dominated by
Telmex
(Teléfonos de México), privatized in 1990. By 2006, Telmex had expanded its operations to Colombia, Peru, Chile, Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay and the United States. Other players in the domestic industry are
Axtel
and Maxcom. Because of Mexican orography, providing a landline telephone service at remote mountainous areas is expensive, and the penetration of line-phones per capita is low compared to other Latin American countries, at 40 percent; however, 82% of Mexicans over the age of 14 own a mobile phone. Mobile telephony has the advantage of reaching all areas at a lower cost, and the total number of mobile lines is almost two times that of landlines, with an estimation of 63 million lines.[203]
The telecommunication industry is regulated by the government through Cofetel
(Comisión Federal de Telecomunicaciones).

The Mexican satellite system is domestic and operates 120 earth stations. There is also extensive microwave radio relay network and considerable use of fiber-optic and coaxial cable.[203]
Mexican satellites are operated by Satélites Mexicanos
(Satmex), a private company, leader in Latin America and servicing both North and South America.[204]
It offers broadcast, telephone and telecommunication services to 37 countries in the Americas, from Canada to Argentina. Through business partnerships Satmex provides high-speed connectivity to ISPs and Digital Broadcast Services.[205]
Satmex maintains its own satellite fleet with most of the fleet being designed and built in Mexico.

Energy

The Central Eólica Sureste I, Fase II in Oaxaca. The Isthmus of Tehuantepec is the region of Mexico with the highest capacity for wind energy. (see
Tehuantepecer, a strong wind that affects the region)

The Central Geotermoeléctrica Azufres III in Michoacán. 100% of the electricity produced in Michoacán comes from renewable sources.[207]
90% comes from hydroelectric plants, and 10% from the Azufres
Geothermal
Field.[207]

Pemex, the public company in charge of exploration, extraction, transportation and marketing of crude oil and natural gas, as well as the refining and distribution of petroleum products and petrochemicals, is one of the largest companies in the world by revenue, making US $86 billion in sales a year.[208][209][210]
Mexico is the sixth-largest oil producer in the world, with 3.7 million barrels per day.[211]
In 1980 oil exports accounted for 61.6% of total exports; by 2000 it was only 7.3%.[190]

Mexico is the country with the world's third largest solar potential.[213]
The country's gross solar potential is estimated at 5kWh/m2 daily, which corresponds to 50 times national electricity generation.[214]
Currently, there is over 1 million square meters of solar thermal
panels[215]
installed in Mexico, while in 2005, there were 115,000 square meters of solar PV
(photo-voltaic). It is expected that in 2012 there will be 1,8 million square meters of installed solar thermal panels.[215]

The project named
SEGH-CFE 1, located in Puerto Libertad, Sonora, Northwest of Mexico, will have capacity of 46.8 MW from an array of 187,200 solar panels when complete in 2013.[216]
All of the electricity will be sold directly to the CFE and absorbed into the utility's transmission system for distribution throughout their existing network. At an installed capacity of 46.8 MWp, when complete in 2013, the project will be the first utility scale project of its kind in Mexico and the largest solar project of any kind in Latin America.

Science and technology

The
National Autonomous University of Mexico
was officially established in 1910,[217]
and the university became one of the most important institutes of higher learning in Mexico.[218]
UNAM provides world class education in science, medicine, and engineering.[219]
Many scientific institutes and new institutes of higher learning, such as National Polytechnic Institute
(founded in 1936),[220]
were established during the first half of the 20th century. Most of the new research institutes were created within UNAM. Twelve institutes were integrated into UNAM from 1929 to 1973.[221]
In 1959, the Mexican Academy of Sciences
was created to coordinate scientific efforts between academics.

In recent years, the largest scientific project being developed in Mexico was the construction of the
Large Millimeter Telescope
(Gran Telescopio Milimétrico, GMT), the world's largest and most sensitive single-aperture telescope in its frequency range.[224]
It was designed to observe regions of space obscured by stellar dust.

Tourism

Street in the historic center of
Morelia. Mexico has historical architecture in most of its towns being the country with the highest number of Colonial buildings and structures in all of the Americas and also placing a vast number of Pre-colonial monuments.

Mexico has traditionally been among the
most visited countries in the world
according to the World Tourism Organization and it is the most visited country in the Americas after the United States. The most notable attractions are the Mesoamerican
ruins, cultural festivals, colonial cities, nature reserves and the beach resorts. The nation's wide range of climates, from temperate to tropical, and unique culture – a fusion of the European and the Mesoamerican – make Mexico an attractive destination. The peak tourism seasons in the country are during December and the mid-Summer, with brief surges during the week before Easter
and Spring break, when many of the beach resort sites become popular destinations for college students from the
United States.

As of 2016, Mexico was the 8th most visited country in the world and had the 14th highest income from tourism in the world which is also the highest in Latin America.[225]
The vast majority of tourists come to Mexico from the United States and Canada followed by Europe and Asia. A smaller number also come from other Latin American countries.[226]
In the 2017 Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report, Mexico was ranked 22nd in the world, which was 3rd in the Americas.[227]

The coastlines of Mexico harbor many stretches of beaches that are frequented by sunbathers and other visitors.
According to national law, the entirety of the coastlines are under federal ownership, that is, all beaches in the country are
public. On the Yucatán peninsula, one of the most popular beach destinations is the resort town of
Cancún, especially among
universitystudents
during spring break. Just offshore is the beach island of
Isla Mujeres, and to the east is the
Isla Holbox. To the south of Cancun is the coastal strip called
Riviera Maya
which includes the beach town of Playa del Carmen
and the ecological parks of Xcaret
and Xel-Há. A day trip to the south of Cancún is the historic port of Tulum. In addition to its beaches, the town of Tulum is notable for its cliff-side
Mayan
ruins.

On the
Pacific
coast is the notable tourist destination of Acapulco. Once the destination for the rich and famous, the beaches have become crowded and the shores are now home to many multi-story hotels and vendors. Acapulco is home to renowned cliff divers: trained divers who leap from the side of a vertical cliff into the surf below.

Transportation

The
Baluarte Bridge
is the highest cable-stayed bridge in the world, the fifth-highest bridge overall and the highest bridge in the Americas.

The roadway network in Mexico is extensive and all areas in the country are covered by it.[229]
The roadway network in Mexico has an extent of 366,095 km (227,481 mi),[230]
of which 116,802 km (72,577 mi) are paved,[231]
making it the largest paved-roadway network in Latin America.[232]
Of these, 10,474 km (6,508 mi) are multi-lane expressways: 9,544 km (5,930 mi) are four-lane highways and the rest have 6 or more lanes.[231]

Mexico was one of the first Latin American countries to promote railway development,[119]
and the network covers 30,952 km (19,233 mi).[233]
The Secretary of Communications and Transport
of Mexico proposed a high-speed rail link that will transport its passengers from Mexico City
to Guadalajara,
Jalisco.[234][235]
The train, which will travel at 300 kilometres per hour (190 miles per hour),[236]
will allow passengers to travel from Mexico City to Guadalajara in just 2 hours.[236]
The whole project was projected to cost 240 billion pesos, or about 25 billion US$[234]
and is being paid for jointly by the Mexican government and the local private sector including the wealthiest man in the world, Mexico's billionaire business tycoon Carlos Slim.[237]
The government of the state of Yucatán
is also funding the construction of a high speed line connecting the cities of Cozumel
to Mérida
and Chichen Itza
and Cancún.[238]

Mexico has 233 airports with paved runways; of these, 35 carry 97% of the passenger traffic.[233]
The Mexico City International Airport
remains the busiest in Latin America and the 36th busiest in the world[239]
transporting 45 million passengers a year..[240]

Water supply and sanitation

Among the achievements is a significant increase in access to piped water supply in urban areas (88% to 93%) as well as in rural areas (50% to 74%) between 1990 and 2010. Additionally, a strong nationwide increase in access to
improved sanitation
(64% to 85%) was observed in the same period. Other achievements include the existence of a functioning national system to finance water and sanitation infrastructure with a National Water Commission as its apex institution; and the existence of a few well-performing utilities such as Aguas y Drenaje de Monterrey.

The challenges include water scarcity in the northern and central parts of the country; inadequate water service quality (drinking water quality; 11% of Mexicans receiving water only intermittently as of 2014);[241]
poor technical and commercial efficiency of most utilities (with an average level of non-revenue water
of 43.2% in 2010);[242]
an insufficient share of wastewater receiving treatment (36% in 2006); and still inadequate access in rural areas. In addition to on-going investments to expand access, the government has embarked on a large investment program to improve wastewater treatment.

Throughout the 19th century, the population of Mexico had barely doubled. This trend continued during the first two decades of the 20th century, and even in the 1920 census there was a loss of about 2 million inhabitants. The phenomenon can be explained because during the decade from 1910 to 1920 the Mexican Revolution took place.

The growth rate increased dramatically between the 1930s and the 1980s, when the country registered growth rates of over 3% (1950–1980). The Mexican population doubled in twenty years, and at that rate it was expected that by the year 2000 there would be 120 million Mexicans. Life expectancy went from 36 years (in 1895) to 72 years (in the year 2000).

According to estimations made by Mexico's
National Geography and Statistics Institute, as of 2017 Mexico has 123.5 million inhabitants[243]
making it the most populous Spanish-speaking country in the world.[244]
Between 2005 and 2010, the Mexican population grew at an average of 1.70% per year, up from 1.16% per year between 2000 and 2005.

Even though Mexico is a very ethnically diverse country, research about ethnicity has largely been a forgotten field, in consequence of the post-revolutionary efforts of Mexico's government to unify all non-indigenous Mexicans under a single ethnic identity (that of the "Mestizo"). As a result, since 1930 the only explicit ethnic classification that has been included in Mexican censuses has been that of "Indigenous peoples".[245]
Even then, across the years the government has used different criteria to count Indigenous peoples, with each of them returning considerably different numbers. It is not until very recently that the Mexican government begun conducting surveys that considered the Afro-Mexican
and Euro-Mexican
population that lives in the country.

Ethnicity and race

Mexico is ethnically diverse; with people of several ethnicities being united under a single national identity.[250]
The core part of Mexican national identity is formed on the basis of a synthesis of cultures, primarily European culture and indigenous cultures, in a process known as mestizaje.[250][251]
Mexican politicians and reformers such as José Vasconcelos
(promoter of the cosmic race) and
Manuel Gamio
(promoter of indigenismo) were instrumental in building a Mexican national identity on the concept of mestizaje.[252]

The large majority of Mexicans have historically been classified as "Mestizos". In modern Mexican usage, the term
mestizo
is primarily a cultural identity rather than the racial identity it was during the colonial era, resulting in individuals with varying phenotypes being classified under the same identity, regardless of whether they are of mixed ancestry or not.[253]
Since the term carries a variety of different socio-cultural, economic, racial and biological meanings, it was deemed too imprecise to be used for ethnic classification, thus it was abandoned by the government and is not in wide use in Mexican society,[119][254]
although it is often used in literature about Mexican social identities and on intellectual circles. In the Yucatán peninsula the word Mestizo has historically had a different meaning, being used to refer to the Maya-speaking populations living in traditional communities, because during the
Caste War
of the late 19th century those Maya who did not join the rebellion were classified as mestizos.[255]
In Chiapas the word "Ladino" is used instead of mestizo.[256]
According to Encyclopædia Britannica
racially Mestizo Mexicans make up 50% to 67% of the country's population.[257]

The total percentage of Mexico's population who is
indigenous
varies considerably depending of the criteria used by the government on its censuses: it is 5.4% if the ability to speak an indigenous language is used as the criteria to define a person as indigenous,[258]
if racial self-identification is used it is 14.9%[259][260]
and if people who consider themselves part indigenous are also included it amounts to 21.5%.[261]
Nonetheless, all the censuses conclude that the majority of Mexico's indigenous population is concentrated in the southern and south-eastern Mexican states, primarily in rural areas. Some indigenous communities have a degree of autonomy under the legislation of "usos y costumbres", which allows them to regulate some internal issues under customary law. According to the
National Commission for the Development of Indigenous Peoples, the states with the greatest proportion of indigenous residents are:[262]
Yucatán at 59%, Quintana Roo 39% and Campeche 27%, chiefly Maya; Oaxaca with 48% of the population, the most numerous groups being the
Mixtec
and Zapotec peoples; Chiapas at 28%, the majority being
Tzeltal
and Tzotzil
Maya; Hidalgo 24%, the majority being Otomi; Puebla 19%, and Guerrero 17%, mostly
Nahua peoples
and the states of San Luis Potosí and Veracruz are both home to a population that is 15% indigenous, mostly from the Totonac, Nahua and
Teenek (Huastec)
groups.[263]
The absolute numbers of the indigenous population are growing, but at a slower rate than the rest of the population so that the percentage of indigenous peoples in regards to total population is nonetheless falling.[264]
All of the indices of social development for the indigenous population are considerably lower than the national average. In all states, indigenous people have higher infant mortality, in some states almost double of the non-indigenous populations. Literacy rates are also much lower, with 27% of indigenous children between 6 and 14 being illiterate compared to a national average of 12%. The indigenous population participates in the workforce longer than the national average, starting earlier and continuing longer. However, 55% of the indigenous population receive less than a minimum salary, compared to 20% for the national average. Many practice subsistence agriculture and receive no salaries. Indigenous people also have less access to health care and a lower quality of housing.[263]

Similarly to Mestizo and Indigenous peoples, estimations for the percentage of
European-descended Mexicans
within the Mexican population vary considerably: their numbers range from around 10%–20% according to the Encyclopædia Britannica[257]
to as high as 47%[265][266]
according to a nationwide survey conducted by Mexico's government, made with the intent of having a precise outlook of the social and economic inequalities that exist between light skinned European looking Mexicans and Indigenous or African looking Mexicans,[267]
is the first time the Mexican government has conducted an official population study that referenced Mexico's white population in nearly a century.
While during the colonial era, most of the European migration into Mexico was Spanish, in the 19th and 20th centuries a substantial number of non-Spanish Europeans immigrated to the country. According to 20th- and 21st-century academics, large scale intermixing between European immigrants and native Indigenous peoples would produce a Mestizo group which would become the overwhelming majority of Mexico's population by the time of the
Mexican revolution.[268]
However, according to church registers from the colonial times, the majority of European men married with European women.[269]
Said registers also put in question other narratives held by contemporary academics, such as European migrants who arrived to Mexico being almost exclusively men.[270]
Nowadays Mexico's northern and western regions have the highest European populations, with the majority of the people not having native admixture or being of predominantly European ancestry.[271]

The Afro-Mexican population (1,381,853 individuals as of 2015[update])[272]
is an ethnic group made up of descendants of Colonial-era slaves and recent immigrants of sub-Saharan African descent. Mexico had an active slave trade during the colonial period and some 200,000 Africans were taken there, primarily in the 17th century. The creation of a national Mexican identity, especially after the Mexican Revolution, emphasized Mexico's indigenous and European past; it passively eliminated the African ancestors and contributions. Most of the African-descended population was absorbed into the surrounding Mestizo (mixed European/indigenous) and indigenous populations through unions among the groups. Evidence of this long history of intermarriage with Mestizo and indigenous Mexicans is also expressed in the fact that in the 2015 inter-census, 64.9% (896,829) of Afro-Mexicans also identified as indigenous. It was also reported that 9.3% of Afro-Mexicans speak an indigenous language.[273]
The states with the highest self-report of Afro-Mexicans were Guerrero (6.5% of the population), Oaxaca (4.95%) and Veracruz (3.28%).[274]
Afro-Mexican culture is strongest in the communities of the Costa Chica of Oaxaca
and Costa Chica of Guerrero.

During the early 20th century, a substantial number of
Arabs
(mostly Christians)[275]
began arriving from the crumbling Ottoman Empire. The largest group were the Lebanese and an estimated 400,000 Mexicans have some
Lebanese ancestry.[276]
Smaller ethnic groups in Mexico include South and East Asians, present since the colonial era. During the colonial era Asians were termed
Chino
(regardless of ethnicity), and arrived as merchants, artisans and slaves.[277]
The largest group were Filipinos and some 200,000 Mexicans can trace Filipino ancestry.[278]
Modern Asian immigration began in the late 19th century and at one point in the early 20th century, the Chinese
were the second largest immigrant group.[279]

Official censuses

The first census in Mexico that included an ethnic classification was the 1793 census. Also known as the Revillagigedo census, it was Mexico's (then known as
New Spain) first national population census. Most of its original datasets have reportedly been lost, thus most of what is known about it nowadays comes from essays and field investigations made by academics who had access to the census data and used it as reference for their works such as Prussian geographer
Alexander von Humboldt. While every author gives different estimations for each racial group in the country they don't seem to vary much, with Europeans ranging from 18% to 22% of New Spain's population, Mestizos ranging from 21% to 25%, Indians ranging from 51% to 61% and Africans being between 6,000 and 10,000. The estimations given for the total population range from 3,799,561 to 6,122,354. It is concluded then, that across nearly three centuries of colonization, the population growth trends of whites and mestizos were even, while the total percentage of the indigenous population decreased at a rate of 13%–17% per century. The authors assert that rather than whites and mestizos having higher birthrates, the reason for the indigenous population's numbers decreasing lies on them suffering of higher mortality rates, due living in remote locations rather than in cities and towns founded by the Spanish colonists or being at war with them.[280]
Anthropologist Gonzalo Aguirre Beltrán
goes beyond said numbers and splits the Mestizo group into "Euromestizos", "Indomestizos" and "Afromestizos" calculating their numbers at more than one million, 700,000 and 600,000 respectively.[281]
Independent-era Mexico eliminated the legal basis of the Colonial caste system
which led to exclusion of racial classification in the censuses to come.

According to Mexico's second census ever which considered race, made right after the Mexican revolution in 1921,[282]
59% of Mexico's population was Mestizo, 29% was Indigenous and only 9% was European, with Mestizos being the most numerous ethno-racial group in almost all the states.[282]
For a long time this census' results have been taken as fact, with extraofficial international publications such as The World Factbook
and Encyclopædia Britannica
using them as a reference to estimate Mexico's racial composition up to this day.[283][257]
However, in recent time Mexican academics have subjected the census' results to scrutiny, claiming that such a drastic alteration in demographic trends in regards to the 1793 census is not possible and cite, among other statistics the relatively low frequency of marriages between people of different continental ancestries in colonial and early independent Mexico.[284][269]
Said authors claim that the Mexican society went through a "more cultural than biological mestizaje process" sponsored by the state in its efforts to unify the Mexican population which resulted in the inflation of the percentage of the Mestizo Mexican group at the expense of the identity of the other races that exist in Mexico.[285]

In recent times the Mexican government has decided to conduct ethnic surveys and censuses again and has also widened the criteria to classify the ethnicities who were already considered, an example being the Indigenous Mexican classification, which was previously reserved to people who lived in indigenous communities or spoke an indigenous language. According to these recent surveys, Indigenous peoples amount to 21.5% of Mexico's population (including people who declared to be partially indigenous),[261]
Afro-Mexicans are 1.2% of Mexico's population (including people who declared to be partially African)[261]
and European Mexicans amount to 47% of Mexico's population (based on appearance rather than on self-declared of ancestry).[265][266][267]
Less numerous groups in Mexico such as Asians and Middle Easterners are also accounted for, albeit their numbers do not vary significantly from previous estimations. Out of all the ethnic groups that have recently been surveyed, that of Mestizos is notably absent, which may be consequence of the ethnic label's fluid and subjective definition, which complicates a precise calculation as well the tendency that Mexicans have to identify people with "static" ethnic labels rather than "fluid" ones.[286]

The
United States
is the country where most Mexicans live after Mexico, some of the Mexicans in that country are of indigenous origin because they find better opportunities than in rural areas of Mexico. The Mexican presence in the northern neighbor begins with the annexation of the northern half of the country in 1847. Some of the Mexicans who remained on the other side of the border returned to Mexico, but others stayed there (this happened mainly in New Mexico), and retained their language and customs. They were joined by a good number of laborers, who went to settle in the United States, some temporarily, through a labor agreement between the governments of Washington and Mexico. The latest economic crises in Mexico have favored emigration to the north, and it is estimated that at the beginning of the 21st century, about 38 million Mexicans or descendants of Mexicans live in the
United States. Most of them are concentrated in
California,
Texas,
New Mexico
and Illinois. The second place of destination is
Canada, reaching position 62 of foreign communities with 36 575[287]
of Mexicans, the European country with the largest number of Mexicans is Spain, it is the third destination place that in 2009 had 14 399 Mexicans residing mainly for kinship, conjugal and educational reasons; according to the
Institute of Mexicans Abroad (2010), the fourth country in the world in having more Mexicans is the neighboring country
Guatemala
with around 11,481 individuals, mainly for business, commercial, industrial and tourist activities; the fifth place of destination is positioned by Germany
and is the second in Europe with the largest number of Mexican residents, in 2005 there were 7092 Mexicans occupying the rank 45 of foreign communities,[288]
in 2008 a total of 8908 Mexicans were registered[289]
and in 2010 it registered 9225 Mexicans residing in this country, especially in the southern states and large metropolitan areas. Italy
is the sixth destination and one of high growth in a short time. Other important communities of Mexicans abroad are those of Brazil,
Argentina,
United Kingdom,
France,
Netherlands
and Japan; Recently, the Mexican communities have been increasing in
Costa Rica,
Panama,
Dominican Republic,
Chile,
Venezuela
and Cuba. The presence of Mexicans in
Paraguay
and Bolivia
is due to the fact that they are mostly Mexican Mennonites
who have decided to emigrate in these countries that have a high presence of Mennonite communities throughout Latin America.

Languages

The national language of Mexico is Spanish. The country has the largest Spanish-speaking population in the world, with almost a third of all Spanish native speakers.[244][290]

Almost all of the Mexican population speaks Spanish, 99.3% according to the latest census;[291]
nonetheless around 5.4% still speaks an indigenous language besides Spanish. The indigenous languages with the most speakers are Nahuatl, spoken by about 1.45 million people,[292]Yukatek Maya
spoken by some 750,000 people and the Mixtec[293]
and Zapotec languages,[294]
each spoken by more than 400,000 people.

The National Institute of Indigenous Languages
INALI
recognizes 68 linguistic groups and some 364 different specific varieties of indigenous languages.[295]
Since the promulgation of the Law of Indigenous Linguistic Rights
in 2003, these languages have had status as national languages, with equal validity with Spanish in all the areas and contexts in which they are spoken.[296]

The 92,924,489[2]
Catholics of Mexico constitute in absolute terms the second largest Catholic community in the world, after Brazil's.[303]
47% percent of them attend church services weekly.[304]
The feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the patron saint of Mexico, is celebrated on December 12 and is regarded by many Mexicans as the most important religious holiday of their country.[305]
In spite of this, the Mexican State is officially lay secularist since the separation between religious institutions and the political administration of the nation was enshrined in the 1857, and was ratified in the current
Constitution of 1917.
José María Morelos
noted in his writings that there should be no tolerance for any other religion and the Constitution of 1824
declared that the official religion of the Republic would be Catholic, and from the second half of 20th century, began a process of introducing creeds different from the Catholic.

The 1920s was marked by a religious conflict known as the
Cristero War, in which many peasants encouraged by the clergy clashed with the federal government that had decided to enforce the constitutional laws of 1917. Among the measures contemplated by the Magna Carta were the suppression of the
monastic orders
and the cancellation of all religious worship. The war ended with an agreement between the parties in conflict (Catholic Church
and State), by means of which the respective fields of action were defined. Until the middle of the 1990s, the Mexican constitution did not recognize the existence of any religious group. In 1993, a law was enacted whereby the State granted them legal status as "religious associations". This fact allowed the reestablishment of diplomatic relations with the Holy See, to which the Mexican State did not recognize as a political entity.

In certain regions, the profession of a creed other than the Catholic is seen as a threat to community unity. It is argued that the Catholic religion is part of the ethnic identity, and that the Protestants are not willing to participate in the traditional customs and practices (the
tequio
or community work, participation in the festivities and similar issues). The refusal of the Protestants is because their religious beliefs do not allow them to participate in the cult of images. In extreme cases, tension between Catholics and Protestants has led to the expulsion or even murder of Protestants in several villages. The best known cases are those of San Juan Chamula,[308][309]
in Chiapas, and San Nicolás, in Ixmiquilpan,[310]Hidalgo.

Detail of the 1947 mural of
Diego Rivera
that created La Catrina. The image of La Catrina is commonly seen reflected as part of the Day of the Dead (Día de Muertos) celebrations throughout the country.

A similar argument was presented by a committee of anthropologists to request the government of the Republic to expel the
Summer Linguistic Institute
(SIL), in the year 1979, which was accused of promoting the division of indigenous peoples by translating the Bible
into vernacular languages and evangelizing in a Protestant creed that threatened the integrity of popular cultures. The Mexican government paid attention to the call of the anthropologists and canceled the agreement that had held with the SIL. Conflicts have also occurred in other areas of social life. For example, given that Jehovah's Witnesses are prohibited from surrendering honors to national symbols (something that is done every Monday in Mexican public schools), children who have been educated in that religion were expelled from public schools. This type of problem can only be solved with the intervention of the National Commission of Human Rights, and not always with favorable results for children.

The impact of the Catholic religion in Mexico has also caused a fusion of elements. Beyond churches and religious denominations, a phenomenon persists in Mexico that some anthropologists and sociologists call "popular religion", that is, religion as the practice and understanding of the people. In Mexico, the main component is the Catholic religion, to which elements of other beliefs have been added, already of pre-Hispanic, African or Asian origin. In general, popular religiosity is viewed with bad eyes by institutionally structured religions. One of the most exemplary cases of popular religiosity is the cult of
Holy Dead
(Santa Muerte). The Catholic hierarchy insists on describing it as a satanic cult. However, most of the people who profess this cult declare themselves to be Catholic believers, and consider that there is no contradiction between the tributes they offer to the White Child
and the adoration of God. Other examples are the representations of the Passion of Christ
and the celebration of Day of the Dead, which take place within the framework of the Catholic Christian imaginary, but under a very particular reinterpretation of its protagonists.

Women

Until the twentieth century, Mexico was an overwhelmingly rural country, with rural women's status defined within the context of the family and local community. With urbanization beginning in the sixteenth century, following the
Spanish conquest of the Aztec empire, cities have provided economic and social opportunities not possible within rural villages.

As of 2014[update], Mexico has the 16th highest rate of homicides committed against women in the world.[314]
A study in 1997 showed that the prevalence of domestic violence
against women in Mexican marital relationships varies at between 30 and 60 percent of relationships.

[315]
The remains of the victims were frequently mutilated.[316]
According to a 1997 study, domestic abuse in Mexican culture "is embedded in gender and marital relations fostered in Mexican women's dependence on their spouses for subsistence and for self-esteem, sustained by ideologies of romantic love, by family structure and residential arrangements".[317]
The perpetrators are often the boyfriend, father-in-law, ex-husbands or husbands but only 1.6% of the murder cases led to an arrest and sentencing.[316]

Mexican culture reflects the complexity of the
country's history
through the blending of indigenous cultures and the culture of Spain, imparted during Spain's 300-year colonization of Mexico. Exogenous cultural elements have been incorporated into Mexican culture as time has passed.

The Porfirian era (el
Porfiriato), in the last quarter of the 19th century and the first decade of the 20th century, was marked by economic progress and peace. After four decades of civil unrest and war, Mexico saw the development of philosophy and the arts, promoted by President Díaz himself. Since that time, as accentuated during the
Mexican Revolution, cultural identity has had its foundation in the
mestizaje, of which the indigenous (i.e. Amerindian) element is the core. In light of the various ethnicities that formed the Mexican people,
José Vasconcelos
in his publication La Raza Cósmica
(The Cosmic Race) (1925) defined Mexico to be the melting pot of all races (thus extending the definition of the mestizo) not only biologically but culturally as well.[318]

Painting

Many
codices
made both during Pre-hispanic Mexico and in the Spanish colony are preserved.

The art of the Colonial Mexico (center of New Spain) developed a large number of painters born in Mexico. Now these works are preserved in museums in many cities of Mexico.

Mexican Muralism. A cultural expression starting in the 1920s created by a group of intellectual Mexican painters after the
Mexican Revolution, reinforced by the Great Depression and the First World War.[319]

The mural painting had an important flowering during the 16th century, the same in religious constructions as in houses of lineage; such is the case of the convents of
Acolman,
Actopan,
Huejotzingo,
Tecamachalco
and Zinacantepec. It is said that they were mainly indigenous painters led by friars who made them. These were also manifested in illustrated manuscripts such as the
Matrícula de Tributos.

For a time it was believed that the first European painter living in
New Spain
was Rodrigo de Cifuentes, an apocryphal artist who even came to be attributed works such as
The Baptism of the
Caciques
de Tlaxcala, painting of the main altarpiece of the
Convent of San Francisco
in Tlaxcala. Among the native painters was
Marcos Aquino. The religiosity of the Novohispanos ("New-spanish") made that the painting was important for the evangelization of the society, the friars realized the graphic skills of the natives, who enriched the baroque and
mannerist
style. The arrival of several European painters and some students from New Spain, such as Juan Correa,
Cristóbal de Villalpando
or Miguel Cabrera, who made the walls and altarpieces the main source of ideological and political expression of artists.

The
Mexican painting
of the 20th century has achieved world renown with figures such as David Alfaro Siqueiros,
José Clemente Orozco,
Joaquín Clausell,
Frida Kahlo
and Diego Rivera, generation of idealists who marked the image of modern Mexico in the face of strong social and economic criticism. The Oaxacan School quickly gained fame and prestige, diffusion of an ancestral and modern culture, freedom of design is observed in relation to the color and texture of the canvases and murals as a period of transition between the 20th century and the 21st century.

Some of the most outstanding painters in the 21st century (current painters):
Patricia Calvo Guzmán. She studied painting in Beijing. Her work, of marked oriental influence, recalls the cut paper figures of Mexico and China, mixing them with a rich chromatic range;
Eliseo Garza Aguilar, painter and
performer
considered among the leading exponents of the provocative and reflective art of the Third Millennium; in search of a critical response from the spectators, he combines his pictorial work in the performances
with theatrical histrionics; Pilar Goutas, a painter who uses oil on amate support, with strong influence from
Jackson Pollock
and Chinese calligraphy;
Rafael Torres Correa
settles his residence in Mexico in 2001 and joins the contemporary art workshop "La Polilla" in Guadalajara, and performs various plastic and scenographic projects.

Sculpture

From the Spanish conquest, civil and religious sculpture is worked by indigenous artists, with guidance from teachers of the peninsula, so some pre-Hispanic features are shown. Since the 17th century, white and
mestizo
sculptors have created works with a marked influence of European classicism.

Romanticism tended to break the strict norms and models of classicism, as it pursued ideas influenced by realism and nationalism. The religious sculpture was reduced to a sporadic imagery, while the secular sculpture continued in portraits and monumental art of a civic nature. Between 1820 and 1880 the predominant themes were, successively: religious images, biblical scenes, allegories to the symbols of the insurgency movement and scenes and characters of pre-Cortesian history, and portraits of the old aristocracy, of the nascent bourgeoisie and commanders of the pre-revolution. The transcendent was to introduce civil reasons, the first national types and glimpses of a current of self-expression.

Architecture

The presence of the human being in the Mexican territory has left important archaeological findings of great importance for the explanation of the habitat of primitive man and contemporary man. The Mesoamerican civilizations managed to have great stylistic development and proportion on the human and urban scale, the form was evolving from simplicity to aesthetic complexity; in the north of the country the adobe and stone architecture is manifested, the multifamily housing as we can see in
Casas Grandes; and the troglodyte dwelling in caves of the Sierra Madre Occidental.

Urbanism had a great development in pre-Hispanic cultures, where we can see the magnitude of the cities of
Teotihuacán,
Tollan-Xicocotitlan
and México-Tenochtitlan, within the environmentalist urbanism highlight the Mayan cities to be incorporated into the monumentality of its buildings with the thickness of the jungle and complex networks of roads called
sakbés.

With the arrival of the Spaniards, architectural theories of the Greco-Roman order with Arab influences were introduced. Due to the process of
evangelization, when the first monastic temples and monasteries were built, their own models were projected, such as the
mendicant monasteries, unique in their type in architecture. The interaction between Spaniards and natives gave rise to artistic styles such as the so-called
tequitqui
(from Nahuatl: worker). Years later the baroque and mannerism were imposed in large cathedrals and civil buildings, while rural areas are built
haciendas
or stately farms with Mozarabic tendencies.

In the 19th century the neoclassical movement arose as a response to the objectives of the republican nation, one of its examples are the
Hospicio Cabañas
where the strict plastic of the classical orders are represented in their architectural elements, new religious buildings also arise, civilian and military that demonstrate the presence of neoclassicism. Romanticists from a past seen through archeology show images of medieval Europe, Islamic and pre-Hispanic Mexico in the form of architectural elements in the construction of international exhibition pavilions looking for an identity typical of the national culture. The art nouveau, and the
art deco
were styles introduced into the design of the Palacio de Bellas Artes
to mark the identity of the Mexican nation with Greek-Roman and pre-Hispanic symbols.

Modern architecture in Mexico has an important development in the plasticity of form and space,
José Villagrán García
develops a theory of form that sets the pattern of teaching in many schools of architecture in the country within functionalism. The emergence of the new Mexican architecture
was born as a formal order of the policies of a nationalist state that sought modernity and the differentiation of other nations. Juan O'Gorman
was one of the first environmental architects in Mexico, developing the "organic" theory, trying to integrate the building with the landscape within the same approaches of Frank Lloyd Wright.[320]
In the search for a new architecture that does not resemble the styles of the past, it achieves a joint manifestation with the mural painting and the landscaping.

The
Jalisco School
was a proposal of those socio-political movements that the country demanded. Luis Barragán
managed to combine the shape of the space with forms of rural vernacular architecture of Mexico and Mediterranean countries (Spain-Morocco), integrating an impressive color that handles light and shade in different tones and opens a look at the international minimalism.

Mexican architecture is a cultural phenomenon born of the ideology of nationalist governments of the 20th century, which was shaping the identity image by its colorful and variegated ornamental elements inherited from ancestral cultures, classical and monumental forms and, subsequently, the incorporation of modernism and cutting-edge international trends.

The Mexican (Lo mexicano)

In ethnic and cultural terms,
Lo mexicano
corresponds only to everything that is referred to the Aztec
culture; therefore, ethnically Mexicans are those who are also known as Nahuas
and whose language is Nahuatl.[321]
There is a strong discussion to define The Mexican (Lo mexicano); There are two completely divided aspects: ethnic and cultural, which focuses exclusively on the Mesoamerican
people called Mexica people, and the legal-administrative aspect of the territory called
Mexico. In legal terms and in accordance with the
Constitution,
Mexican
is a citizen born within the territory of the United Mexican States or whoever has decided adopt the Mexican citizenship.

The Mexican
could be what characterizes the being of Mexico and its people; however, it is an ethnic concept that only defines the mestizo identity that had been related for a long time and that is limited with respect to the ethnic diversity of the country. It is an intellectual construction product of the approaches of specialists to the cultural
reality of the country. In trying to capture in a single figure the multicultural
reality of Mexico, the result of the intellectual analysis has produced a series of stereotypes
and truisms
about what it is to be a Mexican. This discourse about The Mexican has been used in the political field to legitimize power, and at the same time it is imposed on the population of the country as a fact beyond all doubt.

Literature

Mexican literature has its antecedents in the literatures of the indigenous settlements of Mesoamerica. The most well known prehispanic poet is
Nezahualcoyotl. Modern Mexican literature was influenced by the concepts of the Spanish colonialization of
Mesoamerica. Outstanding colonial writers and poets include
Juan Ruiz de Alarcón
and Juana Inés de la Cruz.

Mesoamerican architecture
is mostly noted for its pyramids which are the largest such structures outside of Ancient Egypt.[citation needed]Spanish Colonial architecture
is marked by the contrast between the simple, solid construction demanded by the new environment and the Baroque ornamentation exported from Spain.[citation needed]
Mexico, as the center of New Spain has some of the most renowned buildings built in this style.

Media

There are three major television companies in Mexico that own the primary networks and broadcast covering all nation,
Televisa,
TV Azteca
and Imagen Television. Televisa is also the largest producer of Spanish-language content in the world and also the world's largest Spanish-language media network.[327]
Media company Grupo Imagen
is another national coverage television broadcaster in Mexico, that also owns the newspaper Excélsior.
Grupo Multimedios
is another media conglomerate with Spanish-language broadcasting in Mexico, Spain, and the United States. The telenovelas
are very traditional in Mexico and are translated to many languages and seen all over the world with renowned names like Verónica Castro,
Lucía Méndez
and Thalía.

Mexican society enjoys a vast array of music genres, showing the diversity of Mexican culture. Traditional music includes
mariachi,
banda,
norteño,
ranchera
and corridos; on an everyday basis most Mexicans listen to contemporary music such as
pop, rock, etc. in both English and Spanish. Mexico has the largest media industry in Latin America, producing Mexican artists who are famous in Central and South America and parts of Europe, especially Spain.

Cuisine

The first
chocolate
version (liquid) was made by indigenous people in present-day Mexico, and was exported from Mexico to Europe after the Spanish conquest.[328]

Mole sauce, which has dozens of varieties across the Republic, is seen as a symbol of
Mexicanidad[329]
and is considered Mexico's national dish.[329]

In 2005, Mexico presented the candidature of its gastronomy for
World Heritage Site
of UNESCO, being the first occasion in which a country had presented its gastronomic tradition for this purpose.[330]
However, in a first instance the result was negative, because the committee did not place the proper emphasis on the importance of corn
in Mexican cuisine.[331]
Finally, on November 16 of 2010 Mexican gastronomy was recognized as Intangible cultural heritage
by UNESCO.[332]

The origin of the current Mexican cuisine is established during the Spanish colonization, being a mixture of the foods of
Spain
and the native indigenous.[333]
Of foods originated in Mexico is the corn, the
pepper vegetables
(together with Central and South America), calabazas
(together with the Americas), avocados,
sweet potato
(together with Central and South America), the turkey
(together with the Americas) and other fruits and spices. Other Indigenous products are many beans. Similarly, some cooking techniques used today are inherited from pre-Hispanic peoples, such as the
nixtamalization
of corn, the cooking of food in ovens at ground level, grinding in molcajete
and metate. With the Spaniards came the pork, beef and chicken meats;
peppercorn, sugar, milk and all its derivatives, wheat and rice, citrus fruits and another constellation of ingredients that are part of the daily diet of Mexicans.

Sports

The
Estadio Azteca, regarded as one of the iconic football stadiums in the world, hosted the 1970 and 1986 World Cup finals and was the main venue of the 1968 Summer Olympics.

Mexico's most popular sport is association football. It is commonly believed that football was introduced in Mexico by
Cornish
miners at the end of the 19th century. By 1902 a five-team league had emerged with a strong British influence.[334][335]
Mexico's top clubs are América
with 12 championships, Guadalajara
with 11, and Toluca
with 10.[336]Antonio Carbajal
was the first player to appear in five World Cups,